Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni said today the decision to amnesty Metta World Peace was purely financial and he wanted to keep the defensive small forward from Queensbridge.

“Obviously it’s a byproduct of the CBA,’’ D’Antoni told The Post today at the Las Vegas summer league at UNLV. “As a person and player, I couldn’t find anyone better. He’s great. I enjoyed coaching him. I hope he finds something great. He deserves it. It’s not the coaches. It’s management. They have to manage the cap.’’

The Lakers amnestied World Peace to save money. Kobe and D’Antoni aren’t interested in saving the Lakers money. They’re interested in winning games, and World Peace would have helped them do that.Though World Peace is declining, maybe to the point he’s no longer a reliable starter, it’s unlikely the minimum-salaried player the Lakers sign to replace him will play as well next season as World Peace would have.Of course, that doesn’t mean the Buss Family was wrong to amnesty World Peace. His salary, plus the resulting luxury-tax bill, likely would have cost them around $12.3 million. That’s a lot of many to pay a marginal starter on a so-so team.Really, this issue is just a matter of perspective, and the Kobe/D’Antoni have are coming from a very different one than the Buss Family. From the outside, that’s understandable and reasonable.But if the Lakers falter this season, which would undoubtedly lead to internal tension and sniping, there’s a distinct possibility Kobe and/or D’Antoni will cite the amnesty of World Peace to show ownership isn’t committed to winning. In that regard, it’s important for Kobe and D’Antoni to stake out their positions now and get ahead of the argument when it comes to the strife that could be coming.

What a mess. The coach and best player on the team want no part of a tank-it season, but that is Jim Buss’s plan. I get the feeling that 1) Kobe’s twitter account is going to be gold for the next year and 2) Mitch Kupchack is going to have to sit through a lot of uncomfortable press conferences answering for decisions Buss Jr. made.

face it faker fans….something had to be done about the lakers paying top dollar to 4 or 5 hall of famers every year
the fakers make 200 mill a year in profits….so unfair to the small market teams in the nba…
if kobe wanted artest to stay, he should lower his 30 mill payday like lebron did in miami….long gone are the days of steinbrenner, al davis, and buss paying out millions to top notch talent and winning every year…
parity and real management of the cap has finally entered the nba, just like it did the nfl and mlb
kobe gets more credit for rings than anyone in history, when in all reality he was just a sidekick on 4 of his 5 rings
lakers are cooked

when did the Lakers turn into Al Davis’s Oakland Raiders?An owner doing as he pleases players and fans be damned and dissension among the players and star players leaving while the Lakers get nothing of value in return….

D’Antoni is a dead man walking. It is already written in stone that he is going to be fired after next season. The Lakers are still paying Mike Brown and they know that they are going to have a horrible season next year so there is no point in firing D’Antoni now and having to pay 3 coaches during a mediocre season. Next off season will be huge for the Lakers. They will be searching for a coach and have 50 million dollars to spend in free agency. The only thing that can screw the Lakers up is Jim Buss. If he stays out of the way and lets Kupchak make the decisions, the Lakers will be in good shape.

I don’t blame Kobe for not wanting to be part of the “rebuilding” season next year, and losing Artest will help that along. But it’s going to happen, and if the Lakers can save the tax money and improve their draft position it’ll be for the best.

And hey, it’s not out of the question that a Chandler Parsons type (meaning unheralded) could emerge in the scrum for the open small forward spot. At the very least they’ll get to audition some people there.

The Lakers only productive scouting staff was none other than The Logo, Jerry West. Has been a while since JW was in the fold, along with poor draft position, lack of draft picks and poor trades for older talent at higher cost. End result is right before your eyes.